“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say you did not know.”

William Wilberforce 1791

Reading Tom Bennett’s book about behaviour, based on his many years of writing for the TES about misbehaviour in schools, a common theme emerged: teachers encountering disrespect and disruption of their teaching. These anecdotes are from just 50 of the 100 or more teachers that Tom included in the book, that are in themselves a selection of over 1,000 written to him at the TES over the years. Collectively, they stand in for the many 1000s of teachers who over the years have experienced continual disruption, but who do not write in to the TES about it.

“The class just won’t do a thing I say. I’m constantly fire-fighting for the whole lesson. I love this job (loved?) but if I can’t actually teach then I wonder if I’m cut out for it any more.”

“Pupils steal my board markers and erasers, and blame me for their misbehaviour: ‘your teaching’s rubbish’ is a typical example. They are terrorising me.”

“My pupils chatter so much that it actually becomes impossible to teach. My lessons are being hijacked. I can’t remember a moment of silence in the room with them.”

“I have a small group of boys who won’t take any discipline seriously – they just giggle when anyone tells them off, even the head. This is driving us teachers up the wall. The defiance is exhausting!”

“Mobile phones constantly interrupt my teaching. Loads of my year 10 boys spend all lesson texting.”

“When I ask a pupil to step aside for a quick word, they histrionically explode with, ‘Why?! Why?! What have I done? God!’“

“When I try to gently put my pupils back on task, or remind them of the work set, they shout back angrily, ‘I’m doing it!’ This irritating habit is undermining me.”

“I try to plan fun things, but my form moan that everything is boring.”

“The class joker is attention seeking: throwing pens, flicking ears, distracting others around him. He doesn’t care – he breaks all the rules and says he doesn’t give a damn about any of the consequences.”

“In my class, some of the pupils gang up on one pupil in really subtle, invidious ways.”

“My school isn’t big on discipline. I try not to shout, but I have to wait ages to get quiet. I also find it hard to get them to line up. It’s really hard to stop the rising tide of misbehaviour. Now fights are breaking out.“

“All my classes take advantage of me, even top sets. After being assaulted and not supported by the school, I resigned.”

“A year 10 boy humiliates me by ignoring me, turning his back and talking to his mates when I’m talking. This is damaging the respect the rest of the class has for me.”

“Behaviour in my class is awful. One won’t do anything he’s told, and the rest copy and join in. Listening lasts about ten seconds, then some of them get up and walk round, and I am completely ignored. Tidying up is non-existent and they throw things around. They don’t care enough to stop, or about sanctions.”

“My year 5s are giving me trouble with low-level disruption all the time. They get loads of detentions and give mouthfuls of abuse if you tell them off. I feel so deflated.”

“They just keep talking and talking! I had two days off work last week because of stress. I used to love teaching, but now I am starting to hate it.”

“Some of my lessons have terrible levels of misbehaviour: talking, rudeness to me personally, not finishing work. Detentions, consistency, withdrawals, nothing has worked. I am at the end of my tether and I’ve started to get migraines. I feel so depressed… but I don’t want my career to end!”

“My class tell me they ‘aint f**king bothered’. They get up and wander around, showing texts and hitting each other. They just laugh at detentions, literally, and those that set them. They actually make me dread coming to school. I’m just counting the days until I can escape to a job other than teaching.”

“I have a class of year 10 girls who are really nasty to me. ‘Sir, you aren’t teaching us properly’, ‘Sir, you aren’t explaining it properly.’ Like a pack they complained to my head of department. If I try to discipline them, they complain I’m picking on them.”

“My year 9s’ behaviour is appalling. In a 40-minute lesson they still couldn’t line up or let me talk for 10 seconds, even though the head of department was there!”

“My year 5 class has a group (about a third) who wont go along with anything. They refuse to work, hide under tables, climb over tables, ignore me, distract others and generally do what they can to ruin my lesson.”

“Some year 7 boys are throwing things at me, sweets and rubbers. One called me a f**king b******. They do not see their teachers as authorities.”

“My year 9 and 10 classes torture me. I can’t handle them. Anarchy in unleashed every lesson.”

“I have one student who is being constantly bullied by another student – persistent flicking, name-calling, taunting, even pinching. The head of year has told the parents that its being dealt with, but it’s not. Nothing’s being done, and it’s driving me crazy.”

“Kids throw paper balls at each other when I’m looking the other way, and they do the same to other teachers round the school. But I don’t want to punish the wrong kids!”

“The school has no sanction system; offenders simply get sent to the head for a conversation. Kids are late to class and refuse to enter, run around rooms and corridors, leave the room when you tell them off, swear, watch rude videos on YouTube in lessons, ignore teachers, ignore punishments.”

“Should I wait for silence, no matter how long it takes? With my year 9s yesterday I realised I would be there until I grew a beard. ‘If he’s not going to start til we stop, let’s keep going and he’ll be quiet all day!’ they said. How long should I wait? It’s become a game to bait me.”

“The boys in my form make dirty jokes, swear and speak to classmates like they’re dirt. The have zilch respect and just see lessons as chances to catch up with their texts or insults.”

“I teach a pair of year 8 twins who get into fights like I get into showers. They will fight with anyone, regardless of age, even those far older than them. How can I stop them?”

“Every day I enter school I walk l past pupils smoking – even worse, some of them are in uniform. Ignoring them seems like cowardice on my part, but I feel uncomfortable as they’re Year 11 and can legally smoke.”

“My SLT say that bad teaching is what leads to bad behaviour. This basically means it’s our fault for the misbehaviour of a class.”

“I was involved in an incident on Friday in which both myself and a TA were assaulted by a pupil. I was punched repeatedly in the back and my TA was punched in the chest. The child has not been excluded and I am expected to teach the child on Monday with the TA who was also assaulted.”

“A pupil was caught with a knife in school, but three days of exclusion later he is back in school! Next week he’s back in my lesson.”

“I have two pupils who repeatedly kick off and hurt other pupils and/or trash the classroom. They throw everything about and scream as loudly as they can in lessons.”

“In a year 10 English class I am about to start teaching, everything seems to degenerate into a riot. The teacher is told to go f*** herself, things are chucked, pupils graffiti the tables, the kids walk in and out of the class at will, and they show each other porn on their phones. There is zero respect for the teacher. At one point one of them hugged her and she looked terrified. I am terrified to and mortified for her.”

“A girl set up a facebook page dripping with venom for the school, with about 25 teachers slagged off. She got a couple of days in the isolation room.”

“I told off a year 10 pupil for play-fighting in the classroom. He pushed me in the corridor. The outcome is the Head wants restorative justice so I have to meet the pupil, who is lying and denying it. His word is being treated as if it is as valid as mine.”

“A few days ago, a nine-year old girl hit me when she was angry because I wouldn’t let her work with a friend. The head said I needed some witnesses to the assault before doing anything. I thought I was an adult and a teacher? The girl refused to apologise, and came into lessons the next day as if nothing had happened.”

“One of my year 9 girls told me to f*** off in a lesson today, and when I told the SLT he asked if there were any witnesses. None of the children said they’d heard it. She denied it, so he said there was nothing he could do.”

“I’m in a reasonable school but as I walk past the corridors some pupils shout out ‘gay boy’ and similar comments. If I raise this then I’m coming out to my colleagues, which I’m not ready for. How can I teach these pupils if they can say things like that to me?”

“A girl in my class said I was a rubbish teacher today. I tried to tell her I was trying my best. What do you do when students criticise you as blatantly as this?”

“Today I was called a c**t by a year 11 boy. As no one else was there it seems he won’t get any punishment. Is a student’s word equal to a teacher’s?”

“My whole class has zero respect for me. I’ve been in teaching for years and never had one like this. Even when I give them whole-class minutes they don’t stop talking. I’ve done seating plans, called home, written letters, detentions, all to no effect. They are spiteful, enjoying winding me up. They make stupid noises and smirk when I tell them off. I feel like I’m losing my grip. Help, please.”

“One child in my year 5 class is so difficult that the whole class is constantly disrupted by his screaming and outbursts. He hits people and throws things when things don’t go his way. When did we allow the expectation that teachers were to put up with assault?”

“One of my Year 9 classes is unteachable. They won’t be quiet at all, they throw paper at me and each other as soon as my back is turned, and they have no respect for me. None of them seem to want to learn. Hardly any have a school bag, and every lesson I have to give almost all of them a pen. They take their phones out whenever they want. This isn’t teaching – it’s wearing away my will to teach. I don’t want to go in anymore, and I’m thinking about giving up a career as a teacher.”

“In my reception class there is a boy who is more violent than any pupil I have ever taught. He started with lots of anger issues, but now it’s more sinister. He will deliberately walk over to another student and hit them hard in the face. He climbs on top of girls and touches them inappropriately and unpleasantly.”

“I was recently assaulted by a pupil; the school has said that after a few days exclusion, he can come back into school and lessons.”

“I’ve just started in a school with serious behaviour issues. The children expect to misbehave and don’t listen. Pupils assault each other frequently – hospitalized in one case recently – and sometimes staff if they get in the way. Swearing is commonplace. The simplest request gets ignored, or a fight breaks out. Children sent out just run away. Detentions don’t happen because they don’t come back. Senior staff don’t follow up on anything either, so nothing improves.”

“Students ignore me, refusing to do what I ask them, such as waiting outside before entering the room, standing outside when they’ve been misbehaving, not throwing paper aeroplanes, etc. I’ve been reporting it but the students keep reoffending.”

“Some year 9 boys are bullying my year 7 son, starting from last term. I never knew how bad it was til he came home in floods of tears. They mock him so much about how he looks that he has asked me seriously if he can have plastic surgery when he’s older.”